Emwyn and the Storm Stranger
by Emwyn Kenothed
Summary: Emwyn is stranded in the Caralain Grass, trying to get to Tar Valon to be a Warder, and meets a stranger.


Emwyn was jolted awake by a sudden drop in temperature. Her head snapped up and she immediately jumped to her feet, looking around. She knew she was still in the same world, but if the tree hadn't been at her back, she would never have known.  
  
All around her, natural chaos reigned. The sky was a roiling purple, a dark bruise marring the earth's face. She had never seen the sky that color before and began to panic as the harsh, cold wind picked her long hair up and whipped it painfully across her face. There was no way to tell where she was, what time of day it was, or what she should do. Hoping there was no lightning, she moved away from the tree and crawled through the grass, as far away from anything as felt safe. The sky threatened and she prayed that it didn't get much colder or she'd freeze to death in the rain.  
  
Lying on her back, grass framing the sky in her vision, she watched as the clouds seemed to tremble, a bolt of lightning seared the sky, and the tree she had been sleeping under burst into flames. Every hair on her body was standing up and she experienced the first taste of hysteria bubbling from her stomach. She was paralyzed, lying naked in the middle of a field in a lightning storm, and she began to laugh. There was no way out. If the Creator had it in for her, she might as well stand up and dance through the field one more time.  
  
Rolling onto her side to ease the pain of laughter, she let the tears come. The sky opened, as if on some kind of invisible cue, and the freezing rain soaked her in a matter of seconds, lightning making her hairs stand on end as it struck repeatedly around her. Emwyn stood up in the middle of the field and started walking once again, ignoring the rain and the lightning and the cold. She was convinced that if she stayed still, the cold would turn her blue or the lightning would strike her before she could manage to find suitable shelter at least dry enough to make and hold a fire.  
  
Lightning crackled all around her, but her body had gone numb. It had been at least an hour since she left the tree behind, and the sky was showing no signs of exhaustion. The rain was steady, though painful because of the chill and the force with which it was hitting her bare skin. Emwyn was ready to lie down and accept her fate when she spotted a small group of trees ahead. Laughing with her luck, she ran to it, her feet churning up mud and her hair slapping wetly against her bare back. She ducked under the trees, and though it wasn't much use against the cold, it at least got her out of the rain. mostly.  
  
Looking up into the shade of the trees, she gauged that she would probably be able to climb up and at least make shelter for the night. It was getting dim and rather hard to see, and she wanted to be tucked in early, especially in this kind of weather. Her skin tingled a bit, and she almost wished she could see how blue it was, but she couldn't feel any pain, so she gauged that she should be fine until the next morning.  
  
She scrubbed her hands in a patch of dry dirt and got a solid grip on the trunk, shimmying her way up. It hurt her chest and inner thighs to be straddling the rough bark of the tree and she wondered how people used to climb trees before clothes were invented. Hoisting herself up onto the first branch, she steadied herself and looked up. There was a nice flat branch where she could enjoy some safe sleep for the night and she prepared herself for one more heave.  
  
She pulled herself up on the branch and was afforded a wonderful view of the plains she had just walked. "You can see anything from here," she said to herself, her voice sounding loud in the quiet noise of the rain and the leaves.  
  
"Yes you can," a voice said softly behind her and Emwyn gave a loud squeak as she jumped and a hand shot out and grabbed her waist, keeping her from falling out of the tree. The man's other hand held the branch above, keeping his balance almost daintily among the limbs. He was tall and thin, and wearing a cloak that made Emwyn's stomach queasy as she looked at it. The cloak blended into the scenery behind him. He seemed to only be damp, not soaking wet, but he was staring at her, his eyebrows climbing up to his hairline. Emwyn realized how strange she must look, even next to this man. A completely naked Andoran child in the middle of the Caralain Grass was not a usual occurrence in any circumstances.  
  
Surprised at how unashamed of her nakedness she was, she grabbed on to the branch above her and steadied herself. "If you were a gentleman, you would offer me your cloak," she said testily, recovered enough to be a bit upset at being surprised.  
  
The man laughed and moved under his cloak. "That I cannot do, my strange friend. But I can give you my coat."  
  
He pulled out from under his cloak a long Tairen coat with a few patches but mostly intact. And very warm. Emwyn put the coat on and moaned with relief. It was still warm from when he had warn it and the thick wool lining broke the wind's harshness immediately. The coat's sleeves stretched well past her hands and the length was down to her ankles, covering her completely. She buttoned it up and sank down on the wide branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree.  
  
The man jumped nimbly to the branch below where he was eye level with Emwyn while standing. He leaned on the branch and stared at her with piercing eyes. "I suppose you know what I'm going to ask," he said. "How did you survive out in that storm? And why are you walking across the Caralain Grass with no clothing? It's a strange thing for anyone to be doing, especially in this weather and especially a girl."  
  
Emwyn swiped at a nose that had begun to run and ignored the grimace of the man whose coat was being used as a handkerchief. She told him about the merchant's cart and being chased naked into the grass and he laughed a little and was somber a little. "It wasn't right for the innkeeper to treat you so," he remarked. "How old are you?"  
  
"Seventeen," Emwyn said proudly.  
  
The man laughed kindly. "I had a daughter your age, many years ago." He turned somber. "Where are you going? Whom do you serve?"  
  
Worried, Emwyn bit her lip. This was the part she was dreading. "I don't really know," she said. "I was on my way to Tar Valon, but I don't know enough geography to know where I'm going."  
  
"Tar Valon?" The man was alert and seemed. dangerous. to Emwyn. He had become immediately more graceful and his left hand strayed to his side, as if caressing a blade that was not there. "Why are you going to Tar Valon? Can you channel?"  
  
Emwyn's face turned red. "No," she said miserably. "I've wanted to be Aes Sedai all my life, but I can't channel. Thevan Sedai of the Red Ajah told me so. She says I'm not even one of those who can be taught. But I'm still going to the White Tower. If I can't channel I want to be a Warder. I want to serve the White Tower."  
  
The man let out a short bark of laughter. "A Warder? Girl, have you ever seen a Warder?" Emwyn shook her head, frightened, and he leaned close to her face, driving every word deep into her heart. "Warders are bitter, lonely men sharing each and every thought and emotion with women who will never love them." He shoved the gut-wrenching cloak under her nose and shook it. "They are given a cloak in exchange for their souls and become killing machines. It is not a job meant for the faint of heart, nor is it meant for girls. You cannot feel or care for anyone or anything but your Aes Sedai and she will never tell you anything except that you are an expendable resource. She will lead you around by your nose and set you between herself and danger and she will kill you without thought if need be." He shook his head as if to clear it and looked at her coldly. "If I were you, I would stay as far away from Aes Sedai as I could."  
  
Though tears were leaking out of Emwyn's eyes, she willed herself not to cry. "You were a Warder once. What happened?"  
  
The man's shoulders slumped and he sat down on the branch. "I was bonded to Oreyci Sedai, of the Gray Ajah. She was a good woman, a kind bondmate. She did little traveling so we mostly spoke together of politics; treatises and diplomacy. She disappeared one day with no warning and I could feel no panic or anger through the bond. I could feel nothing except that she was north of me, far away, and I had to get to her, to make sure she was safe. I kept traveling north, trying to find her, and after a week of feeling steadily increasing fear and pain through the bond, I saw a flash of her in the center of a circle of thirteen, far north, past the wastelands, and knew in that second that she had been forced to the Shadow."  
  
His voice grew rough with tears. "They had been torturing her and she had kept the bond blurred to spare me from the pain. She passed my bond to another Sister who was not so kind with me." He stopped and slowly took his glove off of one hand. Emwyn gasped. It was pasty white and a blistering red, as if his hand had been thrust in a fire and then rubbed along a ridged washing pad. The fingers were twisted and shockingly had no nails.  
  
"She did this to you?"  
  
"If you want to be a Warder, child, the first thing you should know is not all Aes Sedai are good and not all Aes Sedai are good to their Warders." He grimaced at his hand, flexed it once, and put the glove on again. "She killed my friends at the barracks in Tar Valon and framed me for it so I can never go back and tell them about her. She still keeps my bond, to torture me and make sure that I never go near Tar Valon or another Aes Sedai again." He grabbed at Emwyn's coat, a light shining in his eyes. "But you can tell them. You can tell them that Oreyci and Keshe Sedai are Black Ajah." Emwyn's breath caught in her throat and she shivered. "I will agree to help you get to Tar Valon if you promise me you will go straight to Condan Gaidin and inform him of what I've said to you." She nodded numbly. It was a story she would never forget and one she also would like to never repeat.  
  
His eyes lowered again and he slouched against the trunk. "Consider it lucky that you have nothing of value with you. The first thing I do in training is to strip the trainee of everything he owns and give him a weapon. Your weapon will become you. It will be your lover and your companion and will never leave your side. Without your weapon, you are not Gaidin, without your weapon, you are not of use."  
  
He turned and looked at her. "If you are to be my mentee, I need to know your name."  
  
Emwyn's head spun. It was all going so quickly. "Emwyn Fa-Kenothed. Emwyn Kenothed." The man's eyebrows went up, but he nodded.  
  
"And what do I call you, if you are to be my mentor?"  
  
"Umai. Master Umai."  
  
"Yes, Umai Gaidin," Emwyn said.  
  
"No!" He barked. "Not Gaidin. Never again Gaidin. Just Umai. Master Umai."  
  
Emwyn was slightly taken aback, but after the events of the past hour, she was growing emotionally numb. "Yes, Master Umai."  
  
"Good." He climbed down from the tree and Emwyn followed a bit more slowly. "You will first learn how to talk to your body. She is either your greatest weapon or your greatest weakness. I will make her into a weapon. It has stopped raining so I will teach you how to run." He untied his cloak and began to undo the laces on his shirt. "Undress and you will learn to run as the greatest runners in the world run."  
  
She took off the coat and tried not to stare when he removed his breeches. Averting her eyes, she said to the tree branches ahead, "Who are the greatest runners in the world?"  
  
"The Aiel," he said, and began stretching.  
  
Emwyn's eyes popped out of her head. "The Aiel? They're savages. They kill women for fun and keep children as slaves."  
  
Umai let out a bark of laughter. "Tell that to the Aiel. They are the greatest warriors in the world, tough as nails and twice as stubborn. Follow me." She followed him in his stretches, trying not to be self- conscious, and soon lost herself in the calm of the after-rain grass and quickly growing dark. I could live in the wild for the rest of my life, she thought happily.  
  
"Now we begin running." Umai said and took off at a brisk jog. "Whatever you do, do not stop. You can lag behind, but do not walk and do not stop."  
  
Emwyn ran after him, keeping close in the dark. 


End file.
